Quotes from George A. Romero

The 'Dead' films allow me to talk about things that a drama, say, won't. 'Dawn Of The Dead,' which was set in a shopping mall, is on one level about consumerism; 'Land Of The Dead' is a response to Bush.

Collaborate, don't dictate.

Film is a very expensive medium.

When you're working with a low budget, the most expensive time is the time spent on the set. The words of the day are, 'Get off the set as quickly as possible,' and so CG enables you to do that.

I remember when John Cameron Swayze over the television told me personally that the Russians now had the atomic bomb; then I knew that we were goners.

In the old days, there were three networks, and all of a sudden, Walter Cronkite is the most trusted man in America. Everybody believes what he says, not even thinking. In those days, we didn't even know it was being spun. We were very willing to just listen to it and go along with.

Anybody who tunes into Rush Limabaugh already knows what he's going to say and is already inclined to agree. So it winds up creating tribes.

I really believe that you could do horror very inexpensively. I don't think it has anything to do with the effects, the effects are not the most important parts.

I have a very quiet life. There's nothing weird.

I love a couple of Fulci things. I just had a gas watching them. It's not what I would do, but I loved watching them. They were fun.

I vote in the Academy, so I get all the screeners. I'm so often disappointed by all the material and especially by what wins. I find myself never voting for the winner.

Comic books and radio were my escape. I even remember 3-D comic books where you put on the red-and-green glasses and Mighty Mouse would punch you in the face. It was the literature of the day for kids my age who were too bored with listening to 'Peter and the Wolf' on the record player.

I saw 'Dracula,' 'Frankenstein,' 'The Wolf Man,' 'The Invisible Man.' I saw all those guys on the big screen at RKO in the Bronx. I just always loved that stuff. I loved other stuff, too. That's the thing. That wasn't all I wanted to be.

The two great things about computer CG stuff are I can now do gags I would never have dreamed of in the old day.

The grotesque has never really affected or frightened me. I guess it's real-life stuff that frightens me much more.

One thing about a film production is that it must run efficiently; there is no room for dead wood. So somebody that hangs around by the coffee wagon won't get hired again, but somebody who is dedicated and works hard and really puts out will get noticed by the people that matter around there and will get asked to come back again.

What the Internet's value is that you have access to information but you also have access to every lunatic that's out there that wants to throw up a blog.

There are so many factors when you think of your own films. You think of the people you worked on it with, and somehow forget the movie. You can't forgive the movie for a long time. It takes a few years to look at it with any objectivity and forgive its flaws.

When you're shooting super-low-budget - we had 20 days to shoot 'Diary,' and a little over $2 - time is money.

'The Thing from Another World' was the first movie that really scared me. But the one that made me want to make movies was 'The Tales of Hoffman.' That's my favorite film of all time. It's a fantasy film. It's an opera. I never get tired of it.

Horror will always be there, it always comes back, it's a familiar genre that some people, not everyone - it's sort of the cinema anchovies. You either like it or you don't.

If one horror film hits, everyone says, 'Let's go make a horror film.' It's the genre that never dies.

Horror films are the anchovies of the cinema. Either you like them, or you don't.

I don't think you need to spend $40 million to be creepy. The best horror films are the ones that are much less endowed.